Will Pete Rose Make A Play?

Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader, may make a bid for reinstatement to the game and election to the Hall of Fame in an autobiography due out next week.

A newspaper reports Rose has already admitted to Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig that he bet on baseball and may do the same in his book.

The New York Times reports the contents of the book, " My Prison Without Bars," are being tightly held by its publisher. However, a large run of 500,000 copies is planned, suggesting the book — due out on Jan. 8 — might contain significant revelations.

Rose is currently banned for life from baseball because an MLB investigation found he had bet on baseball, including wagers on games in which his Cincinnati Reds played when Rose managed them.

In a previous autobiography written in 1989, the year he was banned, Rose denied betting on baseball.

Rose applied for an end to the ban in 1997. The lawyer who represented Rose in that action said the former outfielder, nicknamed "Charlie Hustle," assured him he did not bet on baseball.

His repeated the denials are considered a leading obstacle to ending the ban and allowing Rose to stand for election to the Hall.

A baseball official tells the Times that in a November 2002 meeting, Rose admitted to Selig that he bet on baseball, but offered no explanation for why he broke one of the cardinal rules of major league ethics.

The autobiography could be an attempt to provide that explanation, The Times reports.

The book comes as the clock ticks on Rose's chance for a place in Cooperstown.

Rose's eligibility for regular election ends in 2006, although the Veterans Committee could vote him in after that dare. The results of this year's Hall of Fame voting will be announced two days before Rose's book is released, although the publisher, Rodale, says the date is a coincidence.

Rose played from 1963 to 1986, spending his career in Cincinnati except for the 1979-1983 seasons, when he went to the Phillies, and part of the 1984 campaign in which he played for Montreal.

Rose had an unspectacular .303 lifetime average, which puts him outside the top 100 all-time. But he sits atop the all-time hits list with 4,256 hits, ahead of Ty Cobb's 4,191. The closest active player is Rickey Henderson, the journeyman leadoff hitter, with 3,055 hits — No. 20 on the list.

Rose also hold the all-time No. 2 spot for doubles with 746, and is fifth in history for runs, with 2,165.